This Year I've earned a new riding badge....

So I've been a proud Spyder owner for about 4 years. Up until this year I really didn't have a good set of rain gear for the rides. This year there's now been twice I've been caught in some torrential rain. Once in Spyderfest earlier this year and once a couple days ago while on my way home from work. While I can say I haven't quite waterlogged as many miles as some of you, I believe I can adequately say that I earned my Mother Nature is an ******* badge. Plus, I've learned that while not the most ideal of riding conditions, riding in the rain isn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

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Originally Posted by sypderrobinson134

So I've been a proud Spyder owner for about 4 years. Up until this year I really didn't have a good set of rain gear for the rides. This year there's now been twice I've been caught in some torrential rain. Once in Spyderfest earlier this year and once a couple days ago while on my way home from work. While I can say I haven't quite waterlogged as many miles as some of you, I believe I can adequately say that I earned my Mother Nature is an ******* badge. Plus, I've learned that while not the most ideal of riding conditions, riding in the rain isn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

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Lol.....Mother Nature is a *******!
That can certainly be an understatement.
i like the award title tho!

Good rain gear will make a difference between tolerance and misery. If you absolutely, positively have to ride in a deluge--good rain gear is a must. :thumbup::thumbup:

Finding the place to stop and put on the rain gear is the other half...:lecturef_smilie: but a must for the traveler....:thumbup:

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Originally Posted by sypderrobinson134

So I've been a proud Spyder owner for about 4 years. Up until this year I really didn't have a good set of rain gear for the rides. This year there's now been twice I've been caught in some torrential rain. Once in Spyderfest earlier this year and once a couple days ago while on my way home from work. While I can say I haven't quite waterlogged as many miles as some of you, I believe I can adequately say that I earned my Mother Nature is an ******* badge. Plus, I've learned that while not the most ideal of riding conditions, riding in the rain isn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

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i know what you mean. My initiation was riding home from SpyderQuest last fall. There was a steady rain for a good bit of the way, but not a torrential downpour. To my surprise, I didn't mind the rain a bit - especially on the interstate. I just put the windshield up and most of the water just blew around me, or over the top. I was wearing genes and a nylon jacket, so I didn't even pull over to get out the Frog Togs I had in my side compartment. Didn't notice any difference in the way the Spyder handled.

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Originally Posted by Chupaca

Finding the place to stop and put on the rain gear is the other half...:lecturef_smilie: but a must for the traveler....:thumbup:

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Some great smart phone apps, like "RadarNow!" help with that - Maryland Spyder Web almost never gets caught without our rain gear when the skies open - we check the radar at gas stops and breaks, and if the radar shows we are likely to hit rain, we gear up for it. That saves having to pull over in a downpour to put it on.

:congrats:

Next up...hail...

We rode in pea and marble size yesterday out of Sturgis. We ATGATT so no worries. Mesh gloves do let the marble size ones smack your knuckles a bit though. The bikes behind us were funny. We were at a stoplight waiting to get on I90 and I don't think the one girl had ever seen hail... "is that ice" she asked as it was just starting. Lots of bikers were not wearing any gear and we're looking pretty miserable getting pelted.

We just sort of grinned and hit the highway.

The gear I've got isn't top of the line, but it's pretty good. I'll admit that what I rode in was a pretty damn nasty storm and I was wet up top but to be fair I didn't realize it until I got stopped so that wasn't a horrible problem. My bottom half was pretty well dry all the way. In all honesty I'm not sure if I'm wearing it right half the time but I know that it eliminated the hellish pain of riding in the rain that's for sure.

As for hail, I thought I was going to hit that going to Spyderfest this year but managed to avoid it lucky for me. I've been loving it this year and have almost went 5000 miles. My ultimate goal is to get to where I can ride damn near year round except in the case of ice and snow. Almost there, just some good winter gear needed.

On my way home from my trip to South Dakota I ran into rain three times on the way home. I have the same rain gear I wore when I was riding two wheels. The only problem I had was getting the top tight around my neck because I didn't take my jacket off. A littlenwet on the top side, but I stayed mostly dry. Since I was riding in 90+ degree weather the wet actually felt good.

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Originally Posted by robmorg

... I was wearing genes and a nylon jacket...

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:roflblack: Reminds me of a joke...

Q: How do you tell the sex of a chromosome?

A: You pull down its genes!

:joke: